As the title says... I have a 97 cavalier that runs perfect at idle but once the lights are turned on the car instanty dies. Anyone know what would cause this? I just replaced the alternator with a new one, could the battery also cause this if it was bad? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks



2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

Also when i turn the heater/air on the car bogs down then eventually dies



2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

i would check the battery cables and alternator cables made sure there not rubbing on anything, check the grounds. and look for any vacuum leaks.id also check the voltage on the battery with the lights off then on and see if theres a big drop volts.

I just replaced the alternator and it is charging, the cables to the alternator look good. Ill check the wires on the battery.
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2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

still check the voltage at the battery with the lights/ heat off then on if theres a big drop in volts then the battery isnt holding a charge and is bad.

Sounds like the battery is low and when you turn something on it is draing off enough voltage to keep the ECM from working properly. Do the normal check, check the battery with the car off and see what it is, if it's low. Check it with the car running to make sure the alternator is working properly and then if you have two people, watch the voltage and see what happens when you turn the lights on. Also if your battery is dead it is going to kill your new alternator if you don't fix the problem soon enough. It's probably under warranty so you probably don't care anyway.

Could this just be a ground problem, i put a brand new batter in the car. Car ran fine for about an hour then died. The battery was drained and the nater wouldn't keep the car running. This is a brand new alternator? any info soon would be appriciated.



2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

Have you checked to make sure the alternator is charging? Doesnt matter if its new, it can be bad. The alternator should be putting out around 14v.


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The alternator is charging...




2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

A bad battery could burn out an alt. Change your brand new battery over night to get a good solid charge in it and only then make sure the alternator is charging still.


- Your not-so-local, untrained, uncertified, backyard mechanic. But my @!#$ runs

Oedwards wrote:A bad battery could burn out an alt. Change your brand new battery over night to get a good solid charge in it and only then make sure the alternator is charging still.

I put a brand new battarey in after the new one died and it still wouldn't do anything. Once i turned on the lights or drove for not even 20 feet. The car would die.

The car will stay running with lights and power stuff if i leave the charger on the battery, could this mean the alternator isn't charging?




2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

I was also told by a friend here to probably replace all the grounds, they are pretty corroded?



2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

Sounds like an alt to me. You are fighting us here.

A bad battery can burn out an alt, so what if you replaced the alt? If the battery was bad it could have burned the new one out.
When your cars dies, does it start back up or does it need a jump?


- Your not-so-local, untrained, uncertified, backyard mechanic. But my @!#$ runs

I'm not fighting anyone here.

I put a brand new battery and alternator in the car. Bot brand new never used. I never ran the car before i put both new battery and alternator in it. After i put both new in it, it ran fine for and drove fine for about an hour. Then it started to bog like it was starving for something, then it completely died. Wouldn't turn back over w/o a jump. Once jumped it would only run for a few min before dieing again.



2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

Have you done a load test, esentially that is what is happening when you turn something like that on, and its loading the circuit, need to check out a load tester for the charging system

jason norwood wrote:Have you done a load test, esentially that is what is happening when you turn something like that on, and its loading the circuit, need to check out a load tester for the charging system

How do i go about testing this?

But the car is also dieing even w/o any electrical turned on?



2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

Never mind i know how to do a load test i pulled a brain fart.



2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

any other opinions?



2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

EcoEnvy wrote:any other opinions?

clean the idle air control valve.
it may be that when the electrical load increases the IAC isn't keeping up

dennis

Is the charging light on on the dash? Are you getting the light with key on engine off? its a gm that stupid light is part of the charging system.

LDR wrote:Is the charging light on on the dash? Are you getting the light with key on engine off? its a gm that stupid light is part of the charging system.

There is a battery light, coolant light , CEL lol. is in a little rough shape.

I did do a load test on the car...

The battery was at 12.47v or something like that when i put it in the car. Hooked everything up and then checked it again, droped down to about 11.62v then turned on some stuff and it dropped about another .2v. So does this mean the alternator doesn't work? Has all brand new grounds as well.



2004 Turbo cavalier 11PSI and blown!

EcoEnvy wrote:

LDR wrote:Is the charging light on on the dash? Are you getting the light with key on engine off? its a gm that stupid light is part of the charging system.

There is a battery light, coolant light , CEL lol. is in a little rough shape.

I did do a load test on the car...

The battery was at 12.47v or something like that when i put it in the car. Hooked everything up and then checked it again, droped down to about 11.62v then turned on some stuff and it dropped about another .2v. So does this mean the alternator doesn't work? Has all brand new grounds as well.

:
Bingo. Car running with or without loads should be 13.7 or higher. Remove the alternator and have it bench tested. Also check and make sure reattached all the wire to it. Also check the fuses under the hood.

This is a bad connection or bad ground. When a terminal is loose it will transmit power like normal, but once over a certain load it looses connectivity. Then just needs to be jiggled a bit and it'll connect again once the load drops.


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